Quentin Douglasson
Quentin Ernest Douglasson (2339 CE - 2471 CE) was a biologist from Earth/Northern Europe, specializing in human biology. He is remembered best as the namesake of Douglasson's law, which states that increase in natural life expectancy for any human civilization will eventually plateau at around 135 Earth years. Life Early life and education Quentin E. Douglasson was born in Earth/Northern Europe in the city of Stockholm, where his father, James Douglasson, worked as a highly esteemed sociologist. James met Quentin's mother, Susan Lanburg, in 2336 when she was assigned to work as a research assistant with him, and two years later they were married. Quentin spent much of his early life travelling with his father, as often his research would take him outside Europe. Quentin first visited Beijing when he was eleven, and when his mother committed suicide in 2361, he decided to return there to study at the Beijing Bio-Institute. He remained there for nine years, completing his doctoral work in 2370. Initially, he had intended to study sociology like his father, but eventually decided to study biology after attending the wrong class due to a timetabling error, and realizing he prefered it. Middle and later life After graduation, Douglasson gained a research position at the Bio-Institute where he stayed for the following twenty-seven years before being hired by the Chinese government in their Human Statistics Department. It was during his time in the statistics department that he began to observe stagnation in life expectancy growth, and his observations led to the discovery of Douglasson's law. Death He finally retired from the Human Statistics Department in 2465, and died six years later of natural causes. Having never been married he left all of his wealth to his maternal cousin, Oswald Lanburg. Career Beijing Bio-Institute After achieving his doctorate in 2370, Douglasson took a position at the bio-institute as a research assistant to Dr. Meng Lei, who was conducting research into the genomics of several newly discovered species of reptile. It was whilst working with Dr. Meng that Douglasson gained a deep interest in statistical methods. After four years of working as a research assistant, Douglasson left Dr. Meng's team and led his own major research project into computer bio-modelling. He also began teaching at the institute, and in 2391 was granted a professorship. Human statistics In early 2397, Douglasson presented a talk entitled "The future of statistical algorithms in biology" at a conference hosted by the Beijing Bio-Institute. Present at the conference was Tung Hao, the director of the Chinese government's Human Statistics Department, whom, impressed by Douglasson's expertise, offered him a senior position within the department. Circa 2430, Douglasson published a paper on observations he had made at the statistics department. He had observed that average life expectancy had not risen since the early 2380s, despite previously having risen by around 0.15 years each year. Furthermore, data from other organisations showed that this had happened globally, rather than being specific to East Asia. Had life expectancy continued to rise normally, the average would have been in the 140s by the time Douglasson's paper was published; instead the figure had stayed at around 135 years. No human civilisation since has managed to exceed this, and it has often been used as a benchmark for measuring the progress of human colonies as they adapt to unfamiliar environments. Despite being proposed in the 25th century, Douglasson's law (as the phenomenon came to be known) was not widely accepted until the late 26th century when increased funding into medical research had failed to raise life expectancy by any significant amount. Category:People